Stay Put Rights in New Brunswick Special Education: What Parents Can Actually Enforce

The school says your child's placement is changing. They want to reduce EA hours, move them to a different program, or implement a partial-day arrangement — and you disagree. You've heard that in the United States, filing for due process automatically freezes your child's placement until the dispute is resolved. That protection is called "stay put."

New Brunswick has no equivalent legal provision by that name. There is no IDEA in Canada, no federal special education law that imposes automatic pendency during a dispute. If you search for "stay put rights" in the provincial context, you will not find a direct match.

What you will find, when you understand the provincial framework, is a patchwork of overlapping protections that serve a similar purpose — and that you can invoke actively. The difference is that in New Brunswick, these protections do not activate automatically. You have to know how to invoke them and move quickly enough to matter.

What NB Has Instead of Automatic Stay Put

1. The Appeal Process Creates De Facto Pendency

Under the Education Act's appeals process, when you file a written appeal of a placement or programming decision, the district must convene a committee to hear the appeal and issue a decision. The appeal applies to the specific decision you are contesting.

In practice, a school that is aware you have formally appealed a placement decision is constrained from implementing that change unilaterally while the appeal is pending. This is not codified as automatic pendency the way IDEA's stay-put rule is, but it is functionally similar: a principal who implements a placement change over a pending appeal is acting in administrative conflict with the appeals process and creating significant legal exposure.

If a school tells you they are implementing a placement change immediately — before your ten-day appeal window has passed — cite the Education Act appeal rights in writing. State explicitly that you are filing an appeal of this decision and that you expect the placement to remain unchanged pending the outcome of that process.

2. Policy 323 Creates Hard Limits on Partial-Day Exclusions

The most common unilateral placement change in New Brunswick special education is the partial-day plan — a school arrangement where a student with complex needs attends for only part of the school day, with the remainder of the school day simply absent.

Policy 323 (Partial School Days) sets explicit conditions that limit when and how long a partial-day plan can be implemented:

• It must be exceptional and temporary, not a routine arrangement
• It requires documented evidence that all three tiers of intervention have been genuinely attempted and have not resolved the issue
• It has a maximum duration of 90 days
• It requires a formal written rationale from the district superintendent — not just the principal
• It must include a documented plan for returning the student to full-day programming

These requirements mean that if a school proposes a partial-day arrangement without meeting these procedural prerequisites, the plan lacks lawful authority. You can contest it from day one by requesting written confirmation of:

• Which specific Tier 1, 2, and 3 interventions were attempted and when
• The superintendent's formal written rationale
• The documented return-to-full-day plan with dates

If the school cannot produce these documents, the partial-day plan is not in legal compliance with Policy 323. That noncompliance is a basis for complaint to the district superintendent, the Child, Youth and Senior Advocate, and the Human Rights Commission simultaneously.

3. The Duty to Accommodate Does Not Pause During a Dispute

Under the NB Human Rights Act, the school's duty to accommodate your child's disability continues regardless of any internal dispute or appeal. A school cannot suspend accommodation obligations while a dispute is being resolved.

This is meaningful because it means that a school that removes supports or changes a placement during an appeal — without completing a formal process — is simultaneously in a potentially precarious position under human rights law. Schools that understand this are less likely to implement changes unilaterally while a parent is actively disputing them.

If a school reduces or removes documented accommodations while an appeal is pending, put that removal in writing immediately: the date, what was removed, and who authorized it. That document becomes evidence in any subsequent Human Rights complaint.

How to Actively Invoke These Protections

The key difference between IDEA stay-put and the NB framework is that in NB, you must be proactive. Here's the sequence:

When you receive notice of a proposed placement change you disagree with:

1. Do not consent. Respond in writing within 24 hours stating that you do not consent to the proposed change and that you are reviewing your rights under the Education Act.

2. File the appeal immediately. For placement and programming decisions under Section 12 of the Education Act, you have ten days from receiving written notice. File the appeal the day you receive notice — this starts the clock on the formal process that constrains the school's ability to act unilaterally.

3. State explicitly that placement should remain unchanged pending appeal. Send a letter to both the principal and the district superintendent stating that, consistent with the ongoing appeal, you expect your child's placement to remain unchanged. If the school proceeds with the change anyway, that fact is documented.

4. Contact Inclusion NB. An Inclusion NB Social Inclusion Coordinator can contact the district directly and attend meetings with you. Their involvement, even informally, changes how schools respond to pending disputes.

5. Contact the Child, Youth and Senior Advocate if exclusion is involved. If the proposed change involves sending your child home, reducing attendance, or placing them in an alternative setting without proper justification — contact the Advocate's office. This is precisely the type of systemic exclusion their office investigates.

What the CYSA's Findings Mean for Your Case

The Child, Youth and Senior Advocate's 2024-2025 reports have been direct: New Brunswick schools are placing students in partial-day arrangements without legal authority. The Advocate has described the provincial system's approach as exhibiting a "culture of lawlessness" when it comes to the rights of students with complex needs.

This public record matters for individual cases. When a school tells you they have no choice but to implement a partial-day arrangement, they are operating against a backdrop of provincial findings that say exactly the opposite — that these arrangements are frequently unlawful and that the provincial government has an obligation to remedy them.

Citing the Advocate's published findings in your formal communications to the district adds weight that a simple parental objection alone does not carry.

When to Contact a Human Rights Lawyer

If a school implements a unilateral placement change despite a pending appeal, removes documented accommodations during a dispute, or continues a partial-day arrangement beyond 90 days without proper authorization — you are in territory where free and low-cost legal guidance is worth pursuing before taking further action.

In New Brunswick, Legal Aid NB can sometimes assist with Human Rights matters. The Law Society of New Brunswick's lawyer referral service provides an initial 30-minute consultation. You do not need a lawyer to file a Human Rights Commission complaint — the Commission process is designed for self-represented complainants — but understanding your strongest legal arguments before filing improves the outcome.

The New Brunswick Special Ed Advocacy Playbook includes template letters for contesting placement changes, the exact Policy 323 requirements to cite when challenging a partial-day plan, and a step-by-step escalation sequence that moves from the principal to the district superintendent to the provincial bodies with the authority to enforce compliance.

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